


Kamen Rider Utsura: Taddle Dynasty

by starofjustice



Series: Kamen Rider Utsura [4]
Category: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Genre: Clip Show, Post-Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, Spoilers - Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:35:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25656772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starofjustice/pseuds/starofjustice
Summary: Kamen Rider Rune must face an unusual challenge to win the gift of ultimate magical power: telling a mysterious guide the virtues of his fellow Kamen Riders, past and present.(Happens around Ch. 40 of the main story.)
Series: Kamen Rider Utsura [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1284614





	1. Chapter 1

Blowing up a huge cloud of brown dust, the truck they’d hitched a ride on rumbled into the distance.

“Finally! Here we are,” the Man in Black declared, sighing in what sounded like relief. Doku leaned over a little to try and peer into the man’s hood. All he could see, like every other time, was the vague outline of a face.

Shaking his head at the hopelessness of identifying his guide, Doku looked at the area where they’d been dropped off instead. Nothing but tall grass and grey skies around the dirt road they stood next to. The only sound was the dull growl of the truck that’d given them a lift, already fading out of earshot.

“So…where _are_ we?” Doku ventured to asked.

“Nowhere!” the Man in Black laughed. He tossed back his head and cackled, the sound echoing around the empty roadside.

Doku let the sound play out. His guide had probably been waiting a while for the chance to use his little joke, and he didn’t want to give the Man in Black a reason to take back his offer of ultimate power _and_ leave Doku out in the middle of nowhere.

Suddenly the Man had a Rider Gashat in his hand. It was the Taddle Dungeon game they’d stolen from Machina Vision, that the Man in Black had said was the key to the ultimate power he was offering. “Nowhere is the safest place for you to face your tests of worthiness.”

“Kind of figured there’d be some tests,” Doku mumbled.

“You don’t get ultimate power just by asking,” the Man responded. A golden glow was seeping up from his hand to cover the game. Covered in power, the game started to float out of his hand.

Doku shrugged. “I’ve played a few of these, you know.”

“Then you don’t need me to explain anything,” the Man said and tossed the Taddle Dungeon game into the air. It shot up with impossible speed, leaving a golden trail behind it until it was only a shining dot in the sky. Above it the sky turned an alien yellow. It spread downward, forming a dome around them.

Even the ground was changing was Doku watched. Tall trees sprouted full-grown out of the ground, surrounding the two of them. The last thing Doku could see before the trees completely blocked out the sky was a mountain, a rock on top shaped a bit like the head of a dragon raised to the sky.

“I can tell from the look on your face you’re impressed,” the Man said, a smirk showing through the shadow of his hood. He held out his arms wide and backed away toward the trees. “Guess you know which way to go.”

Eying him suspiciously, Doku asked, “And where are you going?”

“I’m just to here to get the game back on track,” the Man in Black retorted. “You’re not the one I’m here to play against.”

“Who _are_ you here to play against?” Doku asked. The Man didn’t answer, instead he stepped into the space between a pair of trees and his body turned transparent. “What game?!” Doku demanded. His head was clearing, and questions he hadn’t been able to think of were suddenly flooding into his mind. “Who are you?! What are you trying to do?!”

But the Man in Black’s outline was almost completely out of sight. His reply was only a faint echo. “I am the Game Master,” it came. “I am here to make sure I have the final battle I deserve…with the greatest Rider…when the time comes…”

Then he was gone. Doku was left standing in an artificial forest all alone.

He started cautiously through the trees in the direction where he’d seen the mountain.

It felt like he was stepping into another world, and not because of the virtual landscape. When Doku’d agreed to go with the Man in Black, his had seemed to lighten like all the hard thinking he had to do to deal with the real world. Now that Doku was here, on his own again, his own mind seemed to be coming back and he could think clearly again.

All of a sudden, it seemed so obvious. Man in Black.

Black.

Yeah, that had to be it…

XXX

It was weird…

Usually when Doku played an RPG, he was just sitting there, waiting for the screen to spaz out because some monsters had attacked his party.

This time, it wasn’t like that. Even though he was walking through the virtual forest, knowing he was there to be tested, Doku started enjoying the break from being back home. The noisy cars and trains. The buildings closing on every side. All the people.

So, so many people.

Maybe he should get away more often, Doku thought. Sure fighting real monsters was cool, but what were they supposed to do when it was over? What did anyone need a hero for after there were no more villains?

After a little while the trees thinned out, and Doku was standing on top of a sort of stone disc in the ground. In the middle, which he’d actually been expecting after so much exposure to fantasy games, was a pedestal that came about as high as his waist. Hovering in the middle of the pedestal was a cloud of yellow light.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” Doku called, looking hard into the cloud. As if it had heard him the cloud spread out to the edges of the pedestal.

A shape formed inside. A face, Doku realized. One he recognized.

It was Kensei Hidenaga.

“You know this one, do you not, wizard?” a featureless voice asked from everywhere. “A mighty warrior, Kamen Rider Utsura.”

“Yeah, I know him,” Doku answered the voice.

“At first, he tried to restrain your great ambition!” the voice declared, completely ignoring him. “Why did you allow this?”

Doku lowered the Gamer Septa again. “Oh,” he mumbled. “Is _this_ what this test is about?” He stroked his chin. “All right, if that’s how we’re going to play it. Yeah, when I got my powers, I went kind of crazy. I felt like I was invincible, until I ran into Hidenaga. He was just as strong as I was, and when he confronted me, I flinched and I ran away…

“But Hidenaga didn’t hunt me down and pummel me like I was expecting. I thought he was gonna show me how he was the strongest and I better never forget it,” Doku sighed, all the times that _had_ happened in his childhood congealing into one icy memory that made him shiver for a second.

He held on tight to the Gamer Septa, silently reminded himself how far he’d come since the days of being every bully’s favorite target. Doku went on then, “Hidenaga, he was…well, I guess I remember it best from that one time.”

XXX

_Once Asuna was gone Kensei turned around and faced Doku. "Maybe you can_

_explain something to me," Kensei said, a harsh edge to his voice that_

_Doku thought seemed out of place coming from him._

_"…what's that?" Doku asked, bracing himself for what might be coming next._

_There was a glint of anger in Kensei's eyes, but it quickly faded._

_"Look, when we were in the castle and I started giving out from the_

_poison in my arm, Yoshoku had a bunch of healing items already that he_

_used on me. I was sure he'd been saving those. Do you know why he_

_would've done that?"_

_Doku sank into a chair and sighed before he answered. "Because we knew_

_how bad you were getting. Between the poison spreading and your body_

_wearing out from using the glove too much to power you up."_

_"We?"_

_"Yeah…him and me," Doku nodded. "So we started stocking up on those_

_healing items. We were hoping if we got enough, it might be able to heal_

_you instead."_

_Kiiko slapped Doku across the shoulder. "Why didn't you say so before?"_

_she demanded before Kensei could ask himself._

_"Because we didn't know if it would work, okay?!" Doku snapped back._

_"You'd been getting so bad lately, we didn't want to get Hidenaga's_

_hopes up before we were sure it would actually do anything."_

_"So…you didn't tell me because you were afraid of giving me false hope,_

_or something?" Kensei asked, his voice gentle again._

_Doku waved his hand back and forth at the question. "I tried to imagine_

_what it'd be like if that happened to me, and I just couldn't deal with_

_the thought of that. I just thought it'd be best if…we couldn't really_

_figure out how to explain it without allowing for how it might not work._

_I mean, those were healing items, but poison's a status effect—"_

_He stopped talking abruptly as Kensei looked out the window, the others_

_looking at him quizzically until he shrugged and replied, "I guess I_

_hadn't really thought about it," Kensei said._

_"…you hadn't thought about it?" Kiiko asked, her jaw dropping._

_That made Kensei chuckle as he shrugged. "It hurts like hell sometimes,_

_but I figured soon we'll get the old Riders to help, and they'll help us_

_figure out what to do. Didn't really think about how I might lose my arm_

_or something that bad."_

_Doku slumped back even harder in the chair. "I don't believe it._

_Somebody like you can't really exist, Hidenaga," he breathed._

_Next to him Kiiko shook her head, but she was smiling. "That's the_

_game's hero for you," she said with the tone of it being confirmation of_

_what she already knew._

_Kensei shrugged again, but smiled. "Look, we know it works at least kind_

_of, right? Shouldn't we be focusing on something else, like what we're_

_going to do about Machina Vision?"_

XXX

“I couldn’t believe it,” Doku laughed a little to himself. “Maybe that’s what it took to break me out of thinking of strong people as…bullies, I guess. Meeting somebody who just cared about solving a problem. Someone who didn’t want anything out of it.”

Doku trailed off, not really thinking about what he was saying anymore. So he was so surprised he almost dropped his Septa when he got a reply. “Not wanting his power? Not his victories? Not a desire to stay in his good graces, to preserve your own life?” the voice demanded.

“No,” Doku replied with a shake of his head. “Just...trust. That things would turn out okay. I hadn’t really believed in that since my sister died…”

“A fine gift!” the disembodied voice laughed. The pedestal in the center of the stone disc flashed and the cloud above it condensed in on itself, until it formed into a tiny yellow gem. It turned into a streak of light and zipped over to go into orbit around the top of Doku’s Septa. “Ready yourself your next test of remembrance, wizard!”

“Uh, sure,” Doku muttered. Then suddenly the stone disc ripped itself out of the ground, and threw itself at the mountainside like a frisbee.

With Doku still on top.

XXX 

Hanging onto the pedestal as hard as he could with one arm, Doku yelped in surprise as the ground suddenly flew up. In front of him, the mountain above the forest got bigger and bigger with a speed Doku’s mind could barely process. He was sure he was about to be splattered.

It had all been a trick. The Man in Black hadn’t been who he thought, it’d been Hourakou. Or someone from Machina Vision. All to get Doku Dasao out of the way.

At least, that was what he thought until it landed at the bottom of a trail going up the mountain and pushing itself down into the dirt. After a few seconds Doku realized his ride was over. He stepped off onto the trail with his legs still shaking.

Trying hard to notice how far up he was, Doku followed the trail around the edge of the mountain. It felt like he’d gone around it twice before the trail disappeared into a narrow cave. He turned sideways and slipped through the opening. For a few minutes he had to slide through like that, the rough rock snatching at his skin and clothes, but Doku was focusing more on an ominous red glow coming from the other side.

Finally he stepped out into a small cave. The glow he’d been following came from a small rolling cloud above a roughly-carved stone altar in the back of the room. “This is where I have my next ‘test’, isn’t it?” Doku asked.

“You learn quickly!” the voice from his last test replied. Like before the small cloud inflated and a face appeared in it.

Emu Hojo.

“Kamen Rider Ex-Aid!” the voice said with a laugh, and started sounding _very_ familiar to Doku. “Perhaps not the first hero, but surely the staunchest! The kindest! The greatest! Let us make your second test an easy one. What did you learn from the example of this figure of history??”

There were a lot of stories about Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, and all the amazing things he’d done, of course. “I guess I did always have a favorite…” Doku answered.

XXX

_Ex-Aid and Brave struggled to get off the ground after Revol’s last barrage. Through the pain, Ex-Aid heard a voice calling._

_“Watch your Rider Gauge! If it gets to zero, it’s Game Over! You’ll die!” Asuna warned them._

_It was a terrifying thought, and it filled both Riders’ heads as they dashed back across the battlefield through a hail of missiles and cannon fire. They dove behind any tiny spot of cover they could find, be it floating blocks or oil drums, finally crouching next to each other behind a wrecked car._

_“The gauge is too low. The risks are getting too high,” Brave muttered. He closed the lever on his Driver and pulled out his Taddle Quest Gashat. His armor flashed away with a loud **GACHAN.**_

_Kamen Rider Ex-Aid gaped at him in disbelief. Behind his mask, his eyes were almost as big. “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?!”_

_“Sometimes a doctor has to make the call to reevaluate a situation,” Hiiro Kagami answered him dispassionately._

_And this was the senior doctored who belittled him as a mere intern?_

_Peering over the trunk of the car, Ex-Aid saw little Yuki Kitami, almost totally transparent by then. A Bugster Virus in camo fatigues had its hand clamped around the boy’s neck. Next to both of them was the real Revol, the robotic villain cackling to himself as the boy’s despair brought him closer and closer to victory._

_“All forces, FIRE!” Revol commanded, Bugsters exactly like him jumping between him and Ex-Aid, and firing away into the Rider’s pink armor with their heavy guns._

_But Ex-Aid just kept coming, stomping through the bullets despite one last mark on his health bar._

_“Hey, Ex-Aid, don’t you care if you get a game over?!” Kamen Rider Snipe yelled at him._

_Everyone telling him they knew better._

_But they didn’t. Not with a patient’s life on the line._

_“I promised Yuki,” Ex-Aid grunted, but was blasted off his feet by the bullets. On his back, he finished, “…that we’d fight this together!”_

_The Rider shoved himself back up. “Yuki, I’m here for you! If we work together, there’s nothing to be afraid of!”_

_More and more bullets slammed into Ex-Aid’s body. He staggered. He contorted._

_The one thing he refused to do was go down._

_And Yuki nodded in affirmation._

_As if it had given him a rush of energy, Ex-Aid suddenly launched himself into the air and smacked a block with his Gashacon Breaker. The hammer broke the blocked into piece and exposed an Energy Item inside, a grey one showing a sword breaking as it struck a human figure. As soon as it touched Ex-Aid his armor turned a shining silver. The Bugsters’ bullets bounced off, buying Ex-Aid a few seconds to slap the buttons on his hammer._

_He jumped again, bringing the Breaker down on the ground and sending out a concussive wave that obliterated Revol’s copies. “It’s no use!” Revol declared, full of defiance. “Send in the reinforcements!”_

_Nothing happened._

_“I said, reinforcements!” Revol repeated himself._

_Still nothing._

_“What’s going on here?!” Revol demanded. He whipped around in time to see that Yuki had completely solidified again. He shoved the weakened Bugster Virus away and ran for it._

_It was just the opening Ex-Aid needed to snap open the blade on his weapon and slot his Mighty Action X cartridge inside. “ **Mighty Critical Finish!** ”_

_Spinning crazily through the air, Ex-Aid sliced right through Evol, who exploded in a giant satisfying fireball._

_That was not the end of that fight, and the ending was not a proud one._

_But Ex-Aid would never stop being proud of what he’d achieved in that moment._

XXX

Neither had Doku Dasao. “Even when I still thought of being a Rider as being an ego boost, I guess, I always had to respect Ex-Aid. The guy never let anything stop him. I wanted to be like that too. Even if, back then, it was because I wanted to be the one pushing the bullies around.”

“Guess you have to be careful what you choose to learn from things,” the voice said, sounding smug. And more familiar every time. “Sounds like you probably learned the ‘right’ lesson, though.” Like before, the cloud shrank back in on itself until it turned into a small gem. This one was a faint red, but it flew out and into the orbit of the one around the end of Doku’s wand.

Around him the cave trembled and the altar at the far end dropped through a new hole in the floor. “Follow the trail, to your next trial of remembrance,” the voice prompted him.

Feeling a little lighter, Doku climbed down the hole, ready for whatever this place had in mind for him next.

He hoped.


	2. Chapter 2

When he’d been trying to imagine what his test for ultimate power would involve, Doku Dasao had definitely never considered what it ended up being.

And part of him found that extremely suspicious.

Doku was trying to keep from thinking about it too hard, in case the voice that was guiding him noticed. Having to answer questions about why he respected other heroes seemed like a pretty easy test for ultimate power, though. What if this was some kind of trick?

There wasn’t much time to think about that, as he cautiously went around a corner and was suddenly blasted in the face by light. Doku was about to yell “henshin” when he realized it was just the sun.

In front of the opening that would take him back outside was blocked by a transparent wall. But in front of _that_ was a short stone pillar with a little cloud rolling around above it like the other two he’d seen. Thanks to the blazing daylight on the other side Doku couldn’t make out if it was a certain color.

“Search your memories again, wizard,” challenged the disembodied voice from the other times. “What has this hero’s experience taught you?”

Then in the cloud formed an image, of a severe man with a long lock of white hair hanging down over his face. Doku knew it immediately: it was Taiga Hanaya, perhaps better known as Kamen Rider Snipe.

And Doku immediately remembered the story he’d started thinking about whenever Snipe was mentioned.

XXX

_He couldn’t see straight as he stumbled into the CR Ward, intent on only one thing._

_It was impossible to miss even with his blurred vision. The Gamer Driver’s neon colors called out to him like a beacon. Next to it on the table was the dark object that let it turn an ordinary human into a force to be feared, the Bang Bang Shooting Gashat._

_Taiga reached out for the source of power._

_Then pulled back his hand in shock as he noticed the bloodstain where he’d touched the Driver. Matching the blotch of blood on the inside of his hand. And the blood dripping from the corner of his mouth._

_“Eh?” Taiga mumbled, but the voice sounded it like it was coming from someone else as he looked at the crimson smear in a daze._

_“It’s a side effect from using that Gashat!” a voice came, and even through the haze in his mind Taiga recognized it was coming from someone else. A round-faced man still in his hospital pajamas was leaning awkwardly in the door. His old friend Maki._

_Or so he’d been, once. Maki gasped, “That Gashat’s dangerous! Get a thorough exam from the Ministry of Health!”_

_Then Maki reached for the Gamer Driver. Looking back on it, Taiga knew why. To take the burden away from his injured friend._

_But in the heat of the moment Taiga shoved Maki to the floor and snatched the Driver himself. “Don’t touch it!” Taiga snarled. “This is mine…no one else gets to have it.”_

_“Look at me!” Maki shouted at him, holding up his hand. A hand that turned transparent and flickered with static. “I’m already showing Game Syndrome…you’ll just become like me sooner or later!”_

_His eyes wandered away. Could it be true? Was using the Gamer Driver just asking for death?_

_“Look me in the eye, Taiga!” Maki shouted._

_Taiga did. “…what happens to me has nothing to do with you!” he shouted back._

_Maki reached out and clasped his friend’s shoulders. “I can’t stand to see you suffer anymore!” he pleaded._

_“SHUT UP!” Taiga thundered. “I’m a compatible user! Curing Game Syndrome patients is my duty!”_

_Maki’s weary face fell. “You’re just an egomaniac…”_

_“What’d you say?!” Taiga demanded._

_Shaking his head, Maki almost sobbed, “I thought I was chosen! No-one else can save the patient! If that’s true, it doesn’t matter what happens to me!” He sucked in a loud breath. “It was the same with me! I tried to transform even though I wasn’t compatible! We’re both stupid!”_

_Seeming to grow a few inches in his anger, Taiga retorted, “No I’m not! I just want to save the patient…”_

_“You can’t even save yourself!” Maki countered. Suddenly he grabbed the Driver and game out of Taiga’s hands. “How can you save the patient??” The two of them grappled for the Driver._

_“You’re wrong!” Taiga yelled._

_“You never used to be this reckless!” Maki insisted._

_Suddenly, Maki twisted and threw Taiga off balance. The doctor was knocked to the floor. While he was getting himself upright, he heard Maki yell “ **Henshin!** ”_

_Then Taiga looked up, wide-eyed, at an empty space with flickering pixels already fading into the air._

_The only thing to mark his friend’s demise was a blood-smeared Gamer Driver on the floor._

XXX

Admittedly, it was a story that maybe Taiga didn’t want getting spread around the other Riders. Then again, Poppy had already been around once to see what it was like when Riders built barriers between themselves, and didn’t want that to happen again if she could help it. So she’d made sure to tell all the NG Riders in one of their precious moments of downtime.

“The wild beast has a soft side after all!” the voice laughed. “He’d almost have to!”

“I prefer to think of it finding light in an unlikely spot,” Doku replied.

“Is there a girl you’re trying to impress, or something?” the voice sniggered.

Doku arched his lip in irritation. “What kind of question is that?”

“Sounds like you’re trying to prove you have a poetic soul,” came the response. As it did, two things happened. The cloud showing Taiga’s face shrank in on itself until it compressed into a tiny blue gem that floated around the Gamer Septa. Behind it, the screen covering the cave opening shattered into pieces that scattered on the wind.

Doku stepped through the opening to the cave, and up the narrow slope stretching up the side of the mountain. He almost fell off when the voice called out, “Maybe don’t be in such a hurry, Dasao-san! This is where it stops being fun!”

Right then the rock Doku was putting his weight on slipped out from underneath his foot.

A strangled cry of surprise came over his lips as he struck out his hands, trying to grab for anything to stop his sudden slide down the trail. Even when he stopped at the entrance to cave, Doku stayed lying on the edge of the slope for a few seconds until he was absolutely sure he wasn’t moving.

“See what I mean?” the voice said, more than a little tauntingly.

He didn’t answer. Instead he held up the Gamer Septa, and finally said, “ **Henshin!** ”

Over his shoulders, a hooded purple robe dropped, and Kamen Rider Rune stood up, holding his wand high over his head. Icons flowed from the tip, forming a ring around his body, and Rune tapped one showing an ostrich-like bird. “ **Open Cruiser: Cocobobo!** ” said the cheerful voice of his wand. In front of the Rider, a wireframe shape appeared and then filled itself in, becoming the image on the icon. Immediately the large bird squawked and nuzzled Rune with its beak.

Rune stroked along the bird’s head, even though it was just a game sprite. But the Cocobobo was a friendly face, and he was starting to appreciate those in a way he hadn’t before. He slung himself onto the bird’s back, and it started to cautiously pick its way up the steep trail with its agile feet.

XXX

“It never takes this long in the games,” Kamen Rider Rune mumbled once his mount finally got to a clearing higher up the mountain. For the last half hour they’d been making their way up the trail. They’d made it safely, but the Cocobobo was hanging its head low from the fatigue from the climb.

Rune slid off and looked around. The trail narrowed up ahead and went around a crude wall of boulders. Peering around the side, Rune was completely unsurprised to spot another pedestal with a tiny cloud floating over it.

“Who do you need me to remember this time?” Rune asked.

No answer.

The wind picked up with what seemed like ominously appropriate timing to Rune. He pulled his cloak close around himself and cast his oversized eyes around looking for trouble. Atop the pedestal the cloud started turning dark.

Yoshoku Kasuga’s familiar face appeared inside. Yet on it was a scowl that seemed out of place now.

“Had you worried there for a minute, didn’t I?” the disembodied voice asked, snickering.

“Who _are_ you, anyway?” Rune asked.

“You’re not really expecting an answer to that, are you,” the voice replied. Stating a fact, not asking a question. So saying, it went on, “This Rider’s experiences are probably the most familiar to you, aren’t they? He lost a loved one in the same conflict. When he received power, he used it to lash out. What did looking in a mirror like that show you?”

“Well, since you asked so nice, he did tell me about this one time…”

XXX

_When Yoshoku stumbled home, coming in through the back like he'd left to_

_try to make sure he wasn't seen, he heard a familiar bellowing laugh coming from the living room, joined by a high female laugh. It was Shintaro, and it sounded like that girlfriend of his too, whatever her name was._

_As Yoshoku tried to guess what room they were in so he could get_

_upstairs without running into them the problem solved itself as they stumbled into the kitchen. Shintaro looked the same as always, wide shoulders and powerful jaw, eyes that could nail you to the spot and his bright red letterman's jacket immaculate as always. A skinny girl, giggling and wearing a shiny black leather jacket, skirt and boots staggered into the room with her arm over his shoulders. She was beautiful, but Yoshoku sighed quietly in disgust at the way she_

_staggered and her glassy eyes. He didn't need to guess they'd been drinking. Would their father even notice if Yoshoku drank?_

_"Heeeeeeeey little brother!" Shintaro laughed, his slurring sounding like he'd had a few himself. "What happened to you? You lose a fight to one of those girls' boyfriends or something?"_

_The girl laughed at Shintaro's remark. Yoshoku, too tired to make a clever retort, leaned over into the bathroom and saw himself in the mirror. His hair was a mess and he was developing a huge bruise on one cheek. Most noticeably there was a long dark stain running down the inside of one of his sleeves…was that blood?_

_"No," Yoshoku said, "I won a fight." He smiled a little at his injuries. They seemed like…trophies. He'd gone one out and fought a killer fast food colossus. Shintaro would never accomplish something like that no matter how long he lived._

_Yoshoku pushed past Shintaro and his girlfriend and went upstairs, leaving them staring up after him in surprise._

XXX

“Should I accept that?” the voice pondered, his tone sounding as if he was turning away from Rune to do it without even having a body there. “It sounds a hell of a lot like a couple of your other answers…about finding goodness in someone you thought didn’t have it, or something.”

“I can only tell you what I learned from it,” Rune replied evenly. “It was one thing for me to realize people’s hearts didn’t have to be as dark as I thought, like I learned from being around Hidenaga. But from hearing about that time from him, I started realizing other people could learn to see that things weren’t so bad for themselves. That’s a lesson too.”

“Not really,” the voice countered.

“Yes it is,” Rune countered as well.

“Not really.”

“I suppose you’d still say that if Sling was here himself,” Rune said.

Over the sound of the wind came a derisive snort. “Can’t convince me yourself, so you’re threatening to send your tougher friend after me, huh?”

Rune shook his head. “You’re the weirdest quest guide I’ve ever had to deal with,” he mumbled.

“Then maybe you’re not playing the right games,” was the reply. “You don’t really think you can get an ultimate game without giving answers that really count, do you?”

“And what kind of bullshit is it for you to tell me my experiences aren’t ‘impressive’ enough, or whatever, to count?” Rune retorted. “Maybe I won’t be remembered forever like Ex-Aid, but does that mean what I’ve been through…what my partners have been through, doesn’t matter? Do I only count if I’m the best Rider who ever lived??”

A moment of silence passed. Overhead the clouds suddenly started to darken. There was a menacing crack of thunder. “You’ve got an awfully big mouth, wizard,” the disembodied voice said warningly.

Kamen Rider Rune stood his ground and closed both hands tightly around his wand. “You’re not really expecting me to back down after hearing you say that,” Rune replied.

Not asking a question. Stating a fact.

An arcing branch of lightning raced down out of the stormclouds and exploded at Rune’s feet. He didn’t move. He’d seen way worse than that.

Still, the winds picked up so loud it was like a roar in his ears. In a minute the roar had turned to another sound. A laugh.

Right away the winds were dying down, the skies were brightening again. Yoshoku’s face faded and the cloud shrank down into a small gem and joined the others floating around the head of Kamen Rider Rune’s wand.

“Of course not,” the voice finally answered him. “Kamen Riders don’t get to give up. It takes a rare breed. Keep going Rider, you’re nearly there.”

Giving a quick glance to the ring of gems around his wand, Kamen Rider Rune walked out of the stone circle and up the trail, wondering just how close he really was. And what was waiting at the top of the mountain.

XXX

Both relief and suspicion filled Kamen Rider Rune’s thoughts when his Cocobobo mount got to the top of the dragon-shaped rock atop the mountain. On it were a pair of those pedestals, on the left and right sides of the wide plateau. Each with their own little cloud hovering over them.

“We’re doing both at the same time, looks like,” Rune called out. There was no answer, but by that time he was expecting his bodiless guide to be messing with him.

Above, the sky was turning dark again and a light rain was starting to dust the lenses of his mask. It was nothing like the angry winds that had kicked up when Rune dared to question the voice, but it made him shiver anyway. The end of his little “quest” was near.

And that made him tense, since he played enough of these to know he was going to be facing down its final challenge any time now.

An ultimate game would come in really hand for a fight like that.

“Took you long enough!” the voice suddenly crashed down across the plateau like a wave, almost knocking Rune out of his saddle in surprise. As if it hadn’t noticed—and how could it—the voice narrated on. “The name of the ultimate game you’re questing for is Taddle Dynasty! It’s about the most amazing wizards of many eras joining forces to combat the ultimate evil! That’s why we have to make sure you’ve learned your lessons about how heroes act! Speaking of, let’s start with the one who gets his power from the same series!”

The cloud from the left pedestal zoomed up to Kamen Rider Rune and stopped right in front of his face. Inside it he could see another face: a young, severe, doctor with a neutral expression.

It was Hiiro Kagami’s face. Kamen Rider Brave.

“Tell me a funny story about a time you learned something from Brave here,” the voice chuckled.

“I can do that, but it starts at the ending…”

XXX

_It was what he’d been fighting for all that time._

_Saki was standing there in front of him again. Beautiful. Real. Finally whole again._

_And yet…_

_Hiiro tried to choke back a sob._

_And failed._

_“Saki…!” Hiiro gasped. “I...”_

_“It’s all right,” she interrupted, her voice, her poise understanding, as they’d always been. “Don’t apologize. Ever since the day we met, you’ve always been you, Hiiro. You just thought about becoming a doctor. That’s the Hiiro I always looked up to, whose side I always wanted to be by.”_

_Then her eyes fell. “But I didn’t believe in you.”_

_Hiiro took an uncertain step closer._

_Saki took another one. “But now, I believe in you with all my heart. So, focus on your life, and on your future,” she said._

_An urge to run over and seize her so she wouldn’t disappear from his life again consumed Hiiro. Before he could give in, Saki added, “I’ll always…” she trailed off, then managed to smile. “…always support you.”_

_He took a staggering step across the way to her. And another, harder than the first. He’d fought so hard for this moment, but he knew in a few minutes it would be over. “I swear,” Hiiro choked, “I’ll become the man you believed in, Saki…I’ll be the world’s best doctor!”_

_They were right in front of each other._

_Saki gave him the kind of heart melting smile she always used to give Hiiro before he started focusing completely on his career._

_Behind them, the clock struck midnight. Bits of Saki’s body started floating away, until there was nothing left but a cloud of shining dots disappearing into the sky. Tears ran down Hiiro’s cheeks. It was over._

_He took a deep, steadying breath. No._

_It was another beginning._

XXX

Silence.

The only response to Rune finishing his story was the wind across the plateau was the wind rising slightly.

Rune unhooked his wand from his belt and twisted the dial on the back. A lightning bolt shot up into the clouds and he was answered by a rolling blast of thunder.

“….mmmph?” grunted the disembodied voice, as if just waking up. “Oh, you’re still there. Must’ve dozed off.”

“Need me to repeat my epic tale?” Rune asked.

“Nope! I was just trolling you,” the voice sniggered. “What was the moral of your little story about doctors with dead girlfriends?”

“Maybe it’s that sometimes victory isn’t all you hope it’ll be, but it’s still important to take advantage of the new opportunities it gives you,” Rune replied.

A sarcastic laugh over the rising wind was the voice’s reply. “You’re good at this! You must play a lot of these games after all to know the cheesy morals they all have.” Suddenly there was another loud boom, and Rune’s Cocobobo jumped.

Rune realized it hadn’t come from above them.

Instead it had come from below.

Rune was thrown off his mount as the ground crumbled around them. He struggled to get his balance enough to get back, but that concern was quickly replaced by fear as a skeletal hand reached out of the ground and went for his throat.

Instinct took over. Pure, blind flight response sent Kamen Rider Rune jumping into the air out of reach of whatever was happening underneath him. He heard the cry of his bird as it was attacked by whatever was coming out of the ground, and out of the corner of his eye could see it turning back into its wireframe model before disappearing. At the peak of his jump he looked down, and saw an army of skeletons swarming around the top of the mountain.

All looking up at him with empty eyes, waiting for Rune to fall back down so they could attack.

And that was what he did as gravity asserted itself. A fireball launched from his wand exploded in the middle of the skeletons, but only blackened their bones. Rune switched the spell loaded to his wand and sent a miniature tornado blasting from the tip hoping to blow them apart. The wind passed right through the skeletal attackers, who closed in as soon as his shoes touched the ground.

“Your old tricks really don’t work anymore,” the voice said, and as it did the skeletons all froze in place. “You really do need this new game!”

The second its words stopped the skeleton seemed to restart, and reached out for Rune with bony fingers.

“What am I supposed to do?!” Rune screamed back, and the skeletons stopped in mid-lunge again.

“Tell the story of the last hero!” the voice informed him. “The most important lesson you learned!” Another small cloud formed and another face appeared in it.

It was Doku Dasao’s own face, the one underneath Kamen Rider Rune’s mask.

“Tell me the story of the most important thing in your career! Something that happened to you and you alone!” the voice yelled. “Make it good, cuz I’m done buying you a break from your friends down there!”

“I know! I know the answer!” Doku yelled back, going into his recounting…

XXX

_" **Skill Level 2**."_

_Then suddenly the air temperature plunged and the edge of the slime_

_about to crash down on the man had frozen solid._

_And standing in between him and the slime was a man in black and_

_turquoise armor, icons of a snowflake and a roaring flame under the_

_health bar on his chest armor. He wore a mask with a silver visor from_

_which two giant cartoon eyes peered out, with a long blue plume sticking_

_out backward from the top. In his hand was a sword with a jagged blue_

_blade, still crackling with the power that had frozen part of the slime._

_Hanging off his belt was a long white wand with a bird ornament on the_

_top and the Taddle Quest Gashat sticking out of the bottom._

_"…Brave?" the man asked, managing to find his voice._

_The Rider didn't answer, instead hitting a button on his sword and_

_making the blade turn around and become a fiery orange. The slime_

_slithered around, moving its frozen part away to the side and rearing up_

_to try to smother them. The Rider slashed out with his sword, engulfing_

_the blade in flame as it bit into the slime leaving blackened tissue_

_where it touched._

_And the Rider kept dragging his sword into its body in a wide arc that_

_carved a large hunk of the slime's body off. It splatted against the_

_ground and then dissolved into a stream of pixels._

_Suddenly the slime launched itself into the air like a rocket. As it_

_came back down it spread itself out, shooting out tendrils in all_

_directions. The Rider grabbed the monster's intended victim by the_

_shoulder and dragged him out of the way. One tendril smashed down on his_

_foot as it landed and the Rider went sprawling from the sudden stop._

_The man screamed at the top of his lungs in pain. The Rider growled in_

_rage and raised his sword over his head with the blade seeming to burn_

_twice as fiercely. He slashed at the closest tendril and sliced it off,_

_then charged at the slime and hacked fiercely at it again and again._

_"Not anymore! I don't have to take /anybody's /shit anymore! /Even/ if_

_they're a monster!" he screamed, hacking off a huge hunk of its top that_

_dissolved into pixels before it even touched the ground._

_"Now I'm the one who's strong!" he kept ranting. He slapped a button_

_on the hilt and the blade flipped to its ice form again, then he stabbed_

_it into the slime and started freezing the enormous jelly. "Now what I_

_say matters the most!" He yanked the sword out of the frozen slime and_

_then kicked it hard, knocking a big chunk off that immediately_

_dissolved. Dark energy started creeping up over his sword._

_"…Brave?" the man asked and the Rider stopped as he heard the question,_

_then turned around. "Why are you so angry?"_

_"What?"_

_"You were never this angry," the man continued. "You were always so calm_

_before, even when things were really bad for you guys. I…my son and I, I_

_mean, we both really looked up to you."_

_The Taddle Quest Gashat started shaking in its mounting. "You…you don't_

_know who I am. You don't know what this means to me."_

_"But all the times you risked your life, even when your enemies were so_

_strong…" the man babbled on. "You were a hero!"_

_"A hero?" the Rider said. "…mister, you're bleeding like crazy on that_

_foot. Oh my god, did it hit you?" He stepped back and stared with eyes_

_almost as wide as the ones in his mask. "Shit…that looks bad," he whispered._

_As he saw the man cowering in pain, too injured to think about running_

_away, a memory started echoing in the Rider's mind._

_\------------------------------------------------------------------------_

A girl was cupping his chin lightly and putting on the bravest smile

anyone had ever had.

That was what he'd always wanted, the chance to be brave, to matter for

something important. She'd always been brave, but like she had so many

times before she told him, "Doku-chan, you should be brave too, but you

should do it because there are so many people who need help."

"Is that why you're going back out there with all the monsters?" he

asked, his cheeks shining with the trails of tears.

She smiled. "There are people out there in trouble, Doku-chan. They're

hurt and they need help."

"No!" he'd wailed. "There's already Kamen Riders who want to stop this!

They can fight, let them do it!"

But she shook her head, still smiling a little to reassure him. "They

can't just wait out there hoping someone finds them, Doku-chan. And I

can't just stay here in a shelter knowing that there's someone out

there somewhere who needs help."

Then she walked out the door.

He never saw her again.

_\------------------------------------------------------------------------_

_The slime gurgled behind him and the Rider whirled around. Seeing his_

_twin's face for the last time in his memory, he realized he was_

_maneuvering himself between the giant bubbling creature and the injured_

_man as it crawled closer and left a spreading purple trail behind it._

_But as soon as he'd done it, the Taddle Quest Gashat yanked itself out_

_of the wand on his belt. It spun end over end a few times then went_

_flying away into the sky, to the same small dot of light that the pixels_

_from the slime's pieces were going. A screen appeared, showing the_

_Gashat appearing next to a bright pink one and starting to spin slowly_

_in place, reading "Collection Expanded" across the bottom._

XXX

A minute passed after Rune finished retelling his experience. His attackers stayed where they were, and he was starting to wonder if the voice would send them to attack him if it wasn’t impressed.

It felt like an hour had passed before he heard anything. “That’s your story? The time you lost a Gashat?”

“Why not?” Rune shrugged. “It was someone else’s power that I took just because I wanted to be able to think I was strong. The power I wield was never stolen from another hero; I’ve taken it and made it my own. Taddle Quest went back to its proper owner and I’ve worked hard to be a strong Kamen Rider, including all this!”

With that, he planted his feet, aimed his wand up at the shy where the voice was emerging from, and declared, “And I’ve played all your games, and I’m ready to call this over.”

A burst of thunder echoed across the plateau. Lightning snaked out in five directions at the same time. “Don’t you know better than to mouth off to the one running the game?!” the voice demanded, sounding like another blast of thunder itself.

“Normally, yes!” Rune yelled back. “And we already did this!”

Another roll of thunder, but halfway through it Rune realized it was actually a sigh. “Guess there’s no fooling you.” Two more gems joined the ones in orbit around Rune’s wand, there was a flash and a Rider Gashat with a bright golden case fell into his other hand.

Its label showed the faces of a group of wizards; men and women, bearded and not, hooded or in pointed hats or wearing jeweled circlets. In the middle was the face of another wizard wearing a dragon-shaped helmet, and across the top was “Taddle Dynasty”. Next to the label was a row of the gems Rune had been collecting.

“See what you can do with some _real_ wind magic,” the voice said, its tone turning smirking. The gang of skeletons surrounding Rune restarted then, skulking closer and swinging their ancient weapons.

“Think I will,” Rune replied. “ **Henshin!** ” He locked it into the slot on his wand and hit the trigger.

“ **Taddle Dynasty! The masters convene! The heavens roar, the oceans dance, the ground quakes! Scyllae the Wind Rider! Golden magic fills the skies!** ” called out the Gashat’s artificial voice with even more enthusiasm than usual. A wave of energy swept down over his body, transforming his armor and filling his body with a feeling of power, of awareness, that he’d never felt before.

His armor turned a yellow that seemed to vibrate with a feeling of life. The cuffs on his wrists, shoes and belt turned gold. A white cape unfurled over his back, secured at the shoulders with golden armor showing engravings of clouds and rushing winds. A heavy chestplate of gold crawled together into one piece over the grey armor showing his health bar. Once it had finished forming designs of faces blowing puffs of wind engraved themselves into the metal.

A crown of tall golden spikes sprouted from above the eyes of Rune’s mask. His wand extended out until it was taller than he was, now a glistening metal staff with a round yellow gem hovering at the tip between a pair of stylized metal wings.

“Time to make some _magic_!!” Kamen Rider Rune exclaimed excitedly.

He had to hang onto his new weapon with both hands, and he didn’t look much like the majestic master wizard he wanted as he awkwardly swung the staff around him in a circle. A continuous blast of wind came from the gem and knocked a few of the closer undead to the ground. Some fell apart as they hit the broken dirt but the bones floated back together.

“ **Tunnel Roar!** ” was the cry from his cartridge as Rune aimed his staff and a tunnel of wind spun from the gem. It ripped through the undead crowd, sending several spinning right off the mountain. Two of the skeletons managed to get around Rune’s attack and throw themselves at him, axe and mace coming at him with lethal intent.

“ **Gust Dart!** ” Rune aimed at his staff at one skeleton, then the other, firing an arrow of wind right into the middle of their bodies. Their rib cages shattered with a satisfying boom that sent the rest of their bones flying. Landing all over the plateau, the bones stayed right where they landed that time.

Once again the ground quaked and more bony warriors crawled out of the dirt. A huge ring of skeletons had formed, so thick Kamen Rider Rune couldn’t even see the edges of the mountain anymore.

“See what you guys think of _this_ ,” Rune smirked. He whirled his new staff while the skeletons were coming closer. Its gem glowed brighter with every pass, and when it was almost blinding Rune impaled the other end of his staff in the ground. “ **Cyclone Effect!** ”

He held on for all he was worth, and it was a good thing he did. A tornado erupted out of the ground around the young Rider, who called “Don’t stop it!” in awe. The tornado kept whirling all the undead warriors off their feet for not being safely anchored to the ground. Within seconds they were so high all Rune could see was white dots against the sky, before dry bones rained down on him. They shattered against his armor and all over the broken dirt.

Rune walked closer to the edge of the plateau, bits of dried bone crackling under his shoes. “Seems kind of anticlimactic,” he muttered, looking down at the forest below into the distance, where it turned back into un-pixelated countryside. He had a long walk ahead of him, Rune grumbled to himself, even if he was sure he could handle anything any game could come up with now.

Without warning there was a rumbling underneath his shoes, even more violently than when Rune was about to be attacked by the skeletal warriors. After a few seconds it felt like the entire world had crumbled to nothing.

And he was falling. The forest below was rushing up to greet him in a lethal embrace.

But as the treetops were getting bigger a thought occurred to him.

The tip of his staff lit up and Rune suddenly stopped falling. Tiny clouds formed under his feet, and he let out a sigh of relief as he turned around to look back at the mountaintop.

When he first saw it, there’d been a rock shaped like a roaring dragon’s head. On top of that was where he’d fought the undead, but now it was just a pile of gravel. Standing on top of it was a new skeleton. The skeleton of a giant four-legged dragon, with skinless wings and a long saurian skull.

It spread its wings and, somehow, flew off the mountain straight at Kamen Rider Rune. The dead dragon’s jaws were open wind to take a bite out of Rune.

“Not today!” Rune yelled. He leaned to his right and a blast of wind from his staff pushed him out of the way of its gaping mouth. A sword-like tooth caught on the bottom of his cape and tore a hunk away, but Rune kept speeding to safety as the bone juggernaut flew past.

Still, he was catching his breath from almost being crushed. “Wizards are powerful, but they’re not very strong…I have to hit this thing hard and bring it down before it has a chance to get that close again,” he whispered to remind himself how to successfully play his archetype. If didn’t do this just right, he wouldn’t survive to show the others his new game.

More than ever, with the dragon turning around to make another charge, it was life or death.

Kamen Rider Rune was up to the job, though.

He leveled his staff at the monster’s face. Light collected inside the gem until it had spread to a globe a foot wide. Like the dragon had grown closer and bigger until it blocked out the entire sky in Rune’s eyes.

“ **Dynasty Critical Incantation! SKYBREAKER!** ” A cyclone even bigger than the dragon skeleton howled from the gem of Rune’s staff, his spell’s awesome kickback blowing him through the sky while engulfing the undead dragon. Tiny chunks were blown away from its massive shoulders and forelegs.

Even though nothing was left but dry bone, its face seemed to contort with anger, snapping its massive jaws in a hopeless attempt to catch Rune. One wing cracked and went spiraling away into the distance. Then the dragon’s neck bent back from the force of Rune’s tornado spell.

A vertebrae in its neck cracked before its head went spinning out of sight too.

With its skull gone the rest of the attacking dragon’s bones tumbled down into the digital forest.

Panting for breath, Rune lowered himself down to the ground, magically slowing his drop. “Amazing,” he breathed. “I can really do anything like this. I really…can help everyone fight again.”

Rune looked around, as if he suspected someone was watching, and whispered, “Thank you for the new game, Dan-san.”

Now assured of his powers, Rune struck the bottom of his staff against the ground and opened a ring of icons around himself. This game had no inventory, he saw from the empty icons, but tapped the one that showed an image inside. “ **Open Cruiser: Airship!** ”

Overhead a wireframe mode started to form. It spread far then swept up, becoming the body of an ancient wooden ship. Two tall masts extended out of the front and rear of the ship. From them formed rotors instead of sails. Once it had all solidified, a steel cage was lowered and Rune stepped inside, the cage rising up the deck of the floating ship again.

“Let’s go show everyone my new tricks,” Rune said and knocked the bottom of his staff on the ship. Its rotors started to spin.

The airship sailed off into the fading light.


End file.
